Job dissatisfaction can manifest in many ways. In the United States, many workers have resigned from their jobs in what is called the great resignation, a phenomenon that is also on the increase in our country. But this is not the only manifestation of weariness, among other things because not everyone has the means to quit their job.
For this reason, other workers opt for an intermediate solution: work the bare minimum so as not to be laid off, in a phenomenon already baptized by Anglo-Saxon researchers of “silent resignation”, as explained by the colleagues of Magnet. . A trend that, according to a recent study published by the Harvard Business Review, has more to do with bad bosses than bad workers.
How? Research indicates that behind the phenomenon of “silent resignation” often hides poor leadership, especially if it affects several members of a staff. In other words, there is always the possibility that there are one or two employees who do the bare minimum because they no longer want to work, but if 20% or 30% of the workforce does the same, you have to look for the person in charge of the management position.
The study notes that after analyzing more than 13,000 employee surveys of almost 3,000 bosses, they found that managers who received higher management and leadership ratings from their subordinates had no only 3% of their employees in “silent resignation”, while those with the worst results had 14% of their workers in this situation.
“Discretionary Effort”. The research also looks at the opposite effect, what its authors call “discretionary effort”, which is nothing more than the predisposition of workers to work harder than necessary, with improvements in their productivity up to at 10%.
The study found that 62% of employees of well-rated managers were willing to go the extra mile for the company, in many cases without even being asked, while only 20% of employees of poorly rated managers were willing to go the extra mile for the company, in many cases without even being asked. willing to go the extra mile for the business, in many cases without even being asked, while only 20% of management and leadership results were willing to do the same.
Lack of motivation. The authors of the study therefore associate a large part of the “silent resignation” with bosses who are not very managerial and managerial who do not know how to motivate and value their employees. Although it is not a phenomenon that occurs exclusively because of poor managers, since there are other factors that can aggravate it and which exclusively concern workers, such as dissatisfaction with about the work they do, having a job they don’t like or taking the job as just a way to earn money and not have higher professional aspirations.
The pandemic has had a crucial influence on them. After the ordeal it has caused, many workers have reflected on their own lives and times and have come to the conclusion that they do not want to live to work. This means that career enthusiasm has generally declined, as shown by data from another study, in this case by Gallup, which found that only 9% of workers in the UK are actually engaged in their current job. . .
And it’s not something exclusive to the British. Europe has the lowest regional percentage of engaged employees, and US employee motivation continues to decline: Only 30% of Gen Z and younger millennials, born in 1989 or later, say they are engaged in their work .
Picture | Tima Miroshnichenko